Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Saturday, December 20, 2008

My oldest daughter arrived at o-dark thirty on Thursday evening; she was late to due to slush and fog, which was dramatically cleared when we left the airport. I was soooo happy to see her; it is wonderful to have her here. HOWEVER, there will be no more discussion of the Big Ass Wrap until after Christmas since my sneaky daughters found my blog and read it when they are in the mood. Now I am glad I never posted the pictures of the darn thing :-) sometimes procrastination is a good thing! This will now become my mantra, lolol (like it wasn’t before?)

You read here that we bought a huge Christmas tree; well it was so big I couldn’t reach it to put the lights on, so it has been just sitting in the living room taking up what little room we allowed for the darn 10’ monstrosity. This morning we decided we were definitely going to have to purchase more lights so we left and got them and DD1 put them on the tree, it was so pretty it didn’t need the decorations. Here is a picture of it, though we still have not found the tree topper, (it is so tall it doesn’t matter, I can’t see it) and half of our ornaments are still hidden in the basement, I still like it.

I am still PO’ed at the PO, I have mailed a package to Marilyn three times and it keeps coming back. I don’t know what is wrong this time, the postage was correct and the customs declaration was completed correctly, but I received it back again last night. Marilyn, I don’t think these hats were destined to reach you. I will probably just take them to a local homeless shelter tomorrow. I am sorry the PO and I could not get together on this. I hope you had enough hats.

DD1 decided my house was too messy and that we were going to clean out the basement. We emptied about 24 boxes, found my old jewelry box and made room to walk around the basement. I am so glad she did because we got rid of a lot more stuff.

26. 102 books to Goodwill.27. 20 books listed on Paperback swap.28. 1 giant framed picture of woods (that normally would hang behind a sofa) to Goodwill.29. A framed picture of a magnolia.30. A working Nintendo that no one uses.31. A Moo Cow creamer that was cute, but just more clutter.32. Left over parts to a closet assembly kit.33. 4 cookbooks that I have never opened.

She has decided that we are working in the garage tomorrow, I wonder how she would feel if I called in sick?

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Yeaaaa, I got rid of some more stuff. I will beat that January 1 deadline if it kills me.20. 5 men’s ties that are very outdated.21. A belt that went into the trash since it was broken (don’t ask me why it wasn’t thrown away earlier, I don’t have a clue)22. A small tabletop waterfall.23. A shawl (acrylic store bought, yuck)24. Lots of old files that were shredded and will be used in the garden.25. A wet suit that will never fit anyone in this house again :-)Wahoo, I am halfway there.

I also finished the Big Ass Warp, it just needs blocking and then I will post a picture. Now I need to decide if I want to put the emobroidery on it.

Darcy has another contest going on for the tote bags in the picture. It is easy to enter just follow this link and please tell her I sent you.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

It is 2.5 freaking degrees right now, the high was 5 today, I have never heard of it being that cold! The windows all have ice and the fire took forever to get going today. It snowed all night and part of the day and it is expected to snow some more on Tuesday. I guess we will have a white Christmas after all, mmmm. . . BTW, I promise not to turn this blog into a weather blog, but I have never lived anywhere that had this kind of weather. I am determined to get used to it though!

I got so PO’ed (pissed off) at the PO (Post Office) (aren’t I a laugh a minute) the other day. As I said I went to the post office and mailed off all of the packages that had been waiting for me to get off my butt. I used the self-serve kiosk and everything went well, so I thought. The next day I returned home from work and found half of the packages on my front step with a stamp that said they needed more postage. What is with that?? How can a self service kiosk make a mistake? I don’t get it! I went back to the PO and asked them what the deal was and they could not give me an answer except to say that I probably clicked the wrong button when selecting package type. This doesn’t make sense to me since I used the same information for all of the packages and only half were returned. However I am not perfect so maybe I should be PO’ed at myself instead of the PO? Nah, I don’t think so :-)

We purchased our Christmas tree yesterday and put it up last night, but it is so pretty that I hate to put anything on it. It is HUGE, 9 feet tall and wonderful. Guess what we will be doing Monday night.

I unpacked two boxes Saturday and decluttered some more stuff (I find more stuff to get rid of every time I unpack another box).13 4 perfectly good coats that we have decided we don’t like or don’t fit, though I don’t know why we did not decide this before we moved.14. Some yarn that I disliked went to Goodwill along with some more knitting needles.15. A sweater that none of us remember ever wearing.16. A dress that my daughter wore when she was in middle school (she is 22 now).17. Old ornaments that were ugly and too heavy to hang on a tree.18. an oversized container that was falling apart.19. 4 bed pillows that were old and stinky.I also posted 15 books on paperbackswap.com. I love that site; I get rid of old books and get new ones for very little cost. I am determined to get all 50 items out of my house by January 1.

I had to take Di to the vet again this weekend, her cough is much worse. The vet showed me the chest x-rays (yes, we get x-rays every time we go) where I could see that her heart has grown at a tremendous rate. It is now almost twice the size it was in July. The vet increased her pain meds for her arthritis and gave us new capsules for the cough. It is very hard to watch someone you love age.

Di and I spent most of Sunday in bed; it is just too cold to be up and about. We got up in the morning and made a wonderful spinach quiche then went back to bed to read. I finished The Pagan Stone, the third in a trilogy by Nora Roberts, I love her books. This book is definitely a keeper and a book I will probably read again. Between the book and eating, I did get to work on some knitting, but I think it is hard to knit in bed (but I still managed to do it).

4. Vanilla and musk is one of my favorite perfumes or aftershaves or smells.

5. The oldest ornament I have is from my grandmother and is just a round ornament with a star indented into the middle of it. I have had it for maaaaany years and treasure it.

6. Take some family, friends, fun, and good food, mix it all together and you have Christmas.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to knitting of course (still have a few gifts to finish), tomorrow my plans include the vet (with a huge vet bill) decorating the tree and cleaning up and Sunday, I want to knit and start wrapping presents!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Well, I finally got all the contest stuff mailed off yesterday; I hope everyone likes what they receive. I have been knitting like crazy, my hands and fingers are hurting, in fact they are crying for some nice hot paraffin. I don’t think it is fair that something we like to do should cause pain! Knitting (or whatever your fun thing is) should cause euphoria, not pain.I got rid of some more stuff, I am bound and determined to meet the deadline, anything that is usable is going to Goodwill, if it isn’t usable it is going in the trash.10 Old medicines that should not have been moved (like an old fleets enema from the army, and my husband retired in 1996). BTW, this stuff went into the trash.:-)11 Books, paperbacks that I am through reading(should I start counting the books separately so I get to the 50 faster? What do you think?)12 Some old dog toys that were just scraps. Did you ever notice how dogs like to take all of the stufing out of their stuffed animals and leave it trailing all over the house, but still want the scraps that are left??

The big Ass Wrap is coming right along now that I am happier with the ends, I cannot wait to see how it turns out, but I am getting tired of knitting for presents. Christmas day I am back to the sweater I started for me! :-)

This is Di with her current favorite stuffed animal, she has to have one at night just like a little kid. Aren't dogs amazing?the cats love to drag the yarn all over the house, I would let them have this one (I hate boucle) but I am afraid they would swallow it.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

It snowed again; my area recieved more than a foot of the powdery white stuff. I am almost positive I will be cleaning out the garage in January so I can park there, but for today I was lucky I did not have to go in as you can see by this picture. The one below is the drift at my back door.I felt very sorry for my poor Di when I let her out this morning

This is a pix of the three small hats I sent to Marilyn last night, they will be okay, but as I said earlier, I will not be knitting with that yarn again. YUCKY!

Well, the Big Ass Wrap was frogged. I hated the way the ends were curling, an since I am using such a bulky yarn for this one, the curl was awful. So I frogged the entire thing (it was more than half done) and restarted the whole thing with a garter stitch edge. This picture below is the start of the new one, I kind of like the way the garter stitch looks at the bottom edge. I am trying to decide what color to use for the embroidery on either end (very basic) with a few crystal beads. I found a scarf pin to be used with it, though the picture is crummy, it is very cute owl, I think my daughter will like it.I hope everyone has a happy and productive day!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Whew, what a weekend. I did get to knit, package things to mail, and to read. I also went to downtown Littleton’s Christmas party, which was nice, because guess where the LYS is. :-) I also got rid of a few more things-

5- 2 curtain rods;6- An old broken fan;7- A lamp that I moved for no reason;8- 2 old lighthouses that were damaged in the move9- A bunch of old knitting needles that I do not use any more.I better hurry if I want to get all 50 items out of here before January 1, but I am sure I can do it.

I read a new book by Monica Ferris this weekend also, Thai Die; which was a pretty good book. One of her tenants returns from Thailand with an antique statue she carried for a man she met while visiting a silk factory. (This bothered me, because you have to wonder why someone would ask a person to carry a statue out of a foreign country, or am I just suspicious?) Anyway, this led to several murders and some excitement, with an interesting ending. I have to admit, this is one of the few books that I could not guess the ending and this made it more interesting to me.

The Big Ass Wrap is halfway done, I found a really cute shawl pin when I was at the LYS this weekend (pix tomorrow), but now I am trying to decide about some embroidery and beads for the ends of it. It will definitely need a little decoration. I am not thrilled with the color I picked out, but it will do. I was wondering how do the rest of you decide which project to work on when you have several going? I have two pairs of socks, 3 shawls and four hats working right now (plus a couple of sweater) and sometimes I get overwhelmed with what I need to finish.

I took another silly quiz that are so popular for filling blogs :-)What is an "anime"?

What Be Your Nerd Type?

Your Result: Literature Nerd

Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works.

Friday, December 5, 2008

It has gotten very cold here in Clorado, it snowed all day yesterday and it was 17 degrees at lunch time yesterday. I had soda on the deck left over from Thanksgiving and it exploded all over the windows last night. So I guess I get to clean the deck tomorrow lolol. This is so different from what we are used to it is nice to see such a drastic winter, at least from what we had in Georgia :-).

5. I'm done with cranky and bossy people who think they ar ealways right, despite their lack of knowledge about the issue in question.

6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is the feeling of love and togetherness that permeates the air.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cooking dinner and knitting, tomorrow my plans include attending a Christmas festival and lots more knitting and Sunday, I want to knit and knit (lots of presents to finish)!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Have you seen this?It is about getting rid of 50 things before January 1st; I saw it first on Monniblog and was interested. I saw it the other day on Grace’s blog and decided I could do this. You have to remember, I moved from a BIIIIG house into a small (for me anyway) house so the more stuff I get rid of the better. Before Thanksgiving, we sent an entire box of cups and glassware. I think I am going to start that today.

So here is my list of things going to either the trash or Goodwill tonight-1. Balancing ball (that has never been used)2. 3 purses (again, never used)3. 1 bag of clothing that I hate4. 10 books that I have read and won’t read again

I guess this is a good start, I will continue to get rid of things as I do not need everything that I have and need to be able to unpack more boxes. It is sad when we have to get rid of more things to be able to put stuff away. I wish I was one of those people who could get rid of everything and do the simple life, but I like having stuff, just not so much of it. One side of me says, get rid of everything, but how can I get rid of my mother’s ugly old capodimonte bowl that she loved so much?

I finished all three hats and packed them away so I could send them to Marilyn. I hope she can use them, I used Lyon Brand Homespun Jiffy yarn and I will never use it again. It was horrible to knit with, the yarn was so nasty, I could not tell what the ribbing was doing, and it took the dry skin off my hands and made it worse. Fortunately, it is so big and bulky that no one else will be able to tell what the ribbing is doing either. :-) Oh well, ugly or not, hopefully it will keep a child’s head warm.

Monday, December 1, 2008

You know, I reread my comment on shopping on Black Friday, and I think I should restate my position as it sounds very harsh. I have no problem with people who shop on the holiday weekend, if that is how they want to spend their time, what I have a problem with is people who are so crazy for a deal that they can trample a man to death. I know that many people agreed with me about shopping, however I bet there were a lot more who disagreed. Another problem is how the retailers feed the frenzy, they make people feel that they have to get it on Black Friday or they will not be able to afford whatever it is they are trying to purchase, which is crazy, because in many instances the same item goes on sale three more times before Christmas. Anyway, I just wanted to say that my problem isn’t with people who shop (though how anyone could stand the crowds for a “deal” is beyond me), but with the frenzy and the mania around the shopping.

The contest winners are (drum roll please. . . ) For the most entries, Marie is the winner, even tho she said she did not enter, simply because she took part and had the most entries. Thank you Marie. In the random drawing, the winners are CraftyChick 128 and Turtle. Please send me your addresses to georgi dot wellington at gmail dot com and I will be mailing the stuff out this weekend. I will have pictures as I mail. Thank you to everyone who participated, I enjoyed reading your comments throughout the contest. :-)

Well, for the post a day (National Blog Posting Month), I only did 22 out of a possible 30, which is much better than I normally do, but not posting every day. Nevertheless, when I have to resort to drivel, I figure no one wants to read it anyway. I am going to attempt to keep up the momentum, I know that I hate it when I go to someone’s blog that I love to read and the posting is not up to date, you know, those people who blog once a month, but what they write is great to read. Very disappointing.

I was late for work today because of the pretty(and cold)snow. I walked out to my car this morning and found a huge pile of snow in the shape of a car. It snowed all day yesterday and my car decided to let the snow sit on it so it was in camouflage. I battled my way to the car, started it, grabbbed the scraper/brush and started brushing it clear. It took me forever, I had no gloves or boots on and I became very cold very quickly. The snow was up to the knees of my pants and I sure wish I could park in the garage. I think I will be buying gloves and boots this weekend! Brrrrrrrrr

About Me

I am 50-something and love to knit (though I am not very prolific) and read. I will knit anything, scarves, dishclothes, socks, etc. I have two grown daughters who are wonderful and two dogs and three cats who keep me entertained. I am currently working on my Master’s degree in business; however, I am irritated that it cuts into my knitting time.